Exciting Inside Tours of Homes

View Area Listings

Meet Our Agents

Commercial Services Group

Career Opportunities

Contact Us

Five, 10 or 15 years ago, the American Dream often consisted of owning a big house, fancy cars and great clothes. However, according to Kate Raidt, author of “The Million-Dollar Parent: How to Have a Successful Career While Keeping Your Family a Top Priority,” the recent recession and housing crisis has caused many Americans to reassess what’s truly important: achieving work/life balance in order to do more things, not have more things.

Here are Raidt’s five “must-dos” in order to successfully live the new American Dream and create a successful work/life balance:

1. Live below your means. The only way to have time and energy to do the things most important to you is to spend less time at work and more time with life. Your monthly expenses might be keeping you in a job that demands too much of your time. Cutting monthly expenses reduces the amount of income needed and may allow you to choose a career that affords you more time for life.

2. Your job must be a good “vehicle.” According to Raidt, any job that sucks you dry emotionally or physically is not a good vehicle for a fulfilling life because you come home too drained to do the things you really love. Ask yourself: Am I able to leave work behind when I drive home? When I come home, am I energized to spend time with my kids? If the answers are “yes,” then you probably have a great vehicle for work/life balance – regardless of your job title or paycheck.

3. Are you in control of your career and your life? Make sure you work for an organization that allows you to stand up for your own schedule and that is willing to work with you to help you have life balance.

4. Turn off your cellphone. Emails, text messages, Facebook, YouTube, games, apps, etc. are huge culprits in the demise of the American Dream. Raidt believes that spending more than a few minutes a day with these gadgets will kill quality time with your kids, distract you from exercising and derail any goals you set for yourself.

5. Take time daily for what matters most. Carve out quality time for your priorities - i.e., your children - every day and don’t let anything get in the way of that time. Schedule everything else (including work) around your priorities. Push and shove distractions out of the way, says Raidt, or your life goals will take the hit.